NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — You might have heard. There's a bit of debate about the new Cracker Barrel logo. Well, this story isn't about that. However, it did make me wonder. Since people are talking about the design we've seen so long, what's the story with that one? Luckily, I knew just the person to call to talk about it.
"He was a natural artist," said Beverly Holley, speaking from her home in Florida. "When he was a little boy and his mom couldn't find him on a rainy day, he'd be under the bed drawing."
Beverly and Bill Holley were married nearly sixty years until Bill's death in 2021.
Bill grew up on farms including one in Petersburg, Tennessee. That gave him his work ethic. He was always fascinated with the sort of iconography you'd find around a community and on store shelves.He especially liked the picture of the girl with a slice of bread on a Sunbeam package.
Around 1959, Bill moved to Nashville, attending Harris School of Advertising Art.
"He looked like a young Robert Redford!" Beverly laughed. "I thought, 'oh, I gotta get noticed!'"
Beverly's father is Billy Byrd, an Opry stage and studio musician who performed with Ernest Tubb. Like her father, Beverly's husband excelled at his art and was about to make a big impact.
"He worked for Buntin Advertising for 59 years," Beverly said.
Bill's work was everywhere you drove.
Beverly listed companies he did work for including O'Charley's, Dollar General, Captain D's, Shoney's, Red Lobster, and Lowe's.
In the 70s, Bill went to work on the famous Cracker Barrel logo.
"The man who was sitting there with the cracker barrel was actually Uncle Herschel," Beverly said, referring to the uncle of the restaurant's founder. "When you went into the Cracker Barrel, you could get on the menu Uncle Herschel's breakfast."
Growing up on farms had given Bill the right perspective for the job.
"The bigger part of it is shaped like a bean," Beverly continued, referring to Bill's Cracker Barrel design.
She said the design was originally a sketch on a napkin.
"What happened to that napkin?" I asked Beverly.
"I kept it for the longest time!" she laughed. "I just thought, 'oh, I guess we don't need this anymore.' It'd probably be worth a lot today!"
Beverly said it was always so fun to travel with their daughters and see the Cracker Barrel signs.
"The girls would say, 'hey, mom! There's dad's logo!" she remembered.
I asked Beverly. Was Bill aware he was helping shape Americana?
"I think he was, but he wouldn't boast," she answered.
Though we weren't talking about the debate over the sign, Beverly said it is a nice compliment that people love her husband's work.
Jillian Wyatt of The Buntin Group said in a statement;
"Nashville-based advertising agency BUNTIN, who had no involvement in the current Cracker Barrel rebrand, is where the designer of the original Cracker Barrel logo spent almost 50 years of his career. Having passed in 2021, his name was Bill Holley, and BUNTIN, in partnership with the American Advertising Federation, maintains a design scholarship in his honor each year. As BUNTIN knows Bill Holley would have wanted, they wish Cracker Barrel nothing but the best."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Music lessons for just 50 cents! A Nashville music school has been providing that to area students for over 40 years including for the city's current mayor. As a child, I always wanted to take piano lessons. I was able to for about 6 months but had to stop due to family finances. I would have loved to have had access to a program like this at the W. O. Smith Music School.
- Lelan Statom
